Gamemaster Tips Summarized

A Brief Word From Hannah

Rust Monster Economies

The D&D 4th Edition Monster Manual 2 recently came out and
re-introduced an old favourite: rust monsters. Like their
predecessors, they consume magic items, but unlike before,
you have a chance at recovering at least some of the value.

In D&D 4e, disenchanting a magic item normally yields 1/5th
the item's original price in residuum, a magical dust that
can be substituted for ritual components. But, when a rust
monster consumes a magic item, residuum worth the full value
of the item can be scavenged from the monster's stomach.

Some people have complained this makes no sense and unduly
tones down rust monsters. I won't say I agree or disagree,
but I will say that these people are not taking the creative
approach.

I can see an entire economy springing up around rust
monster farms. Bring magic items there, get residuum or
gold back. You wouldn't get your full money's worth,
because the farmers would take a cut, and presumably the
rust monsters would need some of it to survive, but it
would still be more than you'd get from selling or
disenchanting the item.

Of course, you'd need to contain the monsters with fences
made from wood jointed together with pegs, instead of
nails, and any kind of leash would have to be entirely
leather with no metal bits. And it would be hard to keep
the monsters fed in times of shortage.

But just how would you retrieve residuum from a rust
monster's stomach without killing the thing?

For that matter, do rust monsters even breed, or would you
have to continually catch new ones to expand your herd?
Perhaps some of the monsters actually produce more residuum
than the item is worth, and some, less. Farmers might hire
adventurers to go on quests to find the most efficiently-
digesting rust monsters to use as breeding stock. Rust
monster rustlers might steal prize studs from neighboring
herds.

And who knows how the local magical community would react?
After all, there is now nearly five times as much residuum
on the market as previously. They might want a cut of the
profits, argue that the rust monsters are wrecking the magic
item economy, or keep rust monster herds of their own.

What if one got loose inside a mages' guild or a magic
academy? It could wreak untold havoc in a short amount of
time. And even if it were caught, could the mages affected
agree to fairly divide up the residuum?

What is it about the rust monsters that causes the items
they consume to turn into their full value of residuum,
rather than losing 4/5ths of it? Some clever alchemist might
attempt to distill rust monster digestive juices, which
would cut into both the farmers' and the mages' profits.
Such an elixir would not just be a new must-have for
adventurers, but could also be a disastrous weapon if
deployed properly.

I do this sort of thing whenever I see something that
appears on its face to be silly and unreasonable. I highly
recommend it. Who knows what adventures await a party who
get involved in the dangerous world of rust monster farming?

Instant Reward Cards

A guest article by Logan Horsford

In most games, there is no way of giving anything to the
players on the spot who come up with good ideas, witty
comments, or anything similar that the GM feels adds to the
game. Giving an XP bonus at the end of the session falls
short, and doesn't offer instant gratification.

What I have done is make something that is easy and can work
for pretty much any game. When players do something that
contributes to the game, I give them cards at random from a
deck. Not playing cards, but 3"x5" cards with different
things on them.

Most are helpful to the players. Some give minor bonuses
to hit or damage, others give favors with NPCs, range
bonuses, etc. Anything that is beneficial to the players
and their characters can be put on a card.

There are other cards that do almost nothing - giving tiny
bonuses or doing nothing at all.

Some cards give bonuses to the enemies, cause players to
have to discard their cards, and similar things.

It is up to the GM as to what they wish to put into their
card deck. I've turned mine into a side game where there is
a strategy to using the cards. Some cards even allow you to
collect certain other cards to cash them in for better
bonuses.

Following are a few short tips surrounding my use of instant
reward cards.

1. Deck-Building Materials

I suggest using the best quality ingredients available. I
realize I probably game more than most people. My card deck
sees a lot of use. If you game less often, your deck doesn't
need to be as sturdy.

To me, my cards are not only a really nifty play aid,
they've become a photo album. I'd strongly recommend the
best materials you can find. It will save you time and
effort in the future.

You'll need good scissors - comfortable ones, as you'll be
using them a lot. Also clear tape, sticky on one side. I
suggest wide scotch tape. Get at least a four packs, which
normally costs about $12, or be prepared to go out to buy
tape later.

Buy 1000 unlined plain white 3x5 cards. For those who are
not using a barbaric measurement system, please convert that
into metric and get cards close to that size. I'd get the
best, stiffest cards you can.

Why that large a card? Because some of the cards have a
considerable amount of text. Others I want to have enough
room for nifty pictures. Also, it is fairly cheap to get
good quality cards in large quantities.

Write up a list of the cards you want to make. If you don't
build this list, actually making cards will be challenging.

Find or make pictures that fit onto the card. About 2 1/4th
square inches seems to work well, but it depends on the
card. You can make cards without the pictures, but they're
pretty darned dull.

I'd recommend choosing pictures that either appeal to you or
match up with the game you are going to be running. It is
neat to match up specific pictures with specific cards -
better, I think, than just random images. Plus, it makes
card play go faster later. Now - and this I can't stress
enough - store the pictures on your computer.

Lastly, make sure they are color pictures. I know black and
white is cheaper, but color is better and this will make
your deck more vibrant.

Find a couple of nice pens. I suggest Pilot G-2 07. Pick up
a four or five pack. They are nice pens and you will use
more than one if your deck is anywhere near as large as
mine.

You'll also need a box lid that's about 2-3 inches deep and
the size of two standard pieces of typing paper - A4 for
those outside of the US, 8 1/2" x 11" for the rest of us.

This will take several hours. Scream at people if necessary
to get the time. Go build yourself a shack out in the woods.
Hide under the stairs. Whatever works.

2. Assembling Your Cards

Cut out all of the nifty pictures. Using the pictures to see
how much space you will have left for the text, write in
your text for each card. You might find some of the pictures
are too big for the amount of text you need to put in.

Make sure you have a bit of space on each side of the
picture. When you tape, I'd recommend a single layer of tape
over the entire picture. If you don't, the picture will
degrade through normal usage. That's the reason for the wide
tape.

When I originally started making these cards, I had made the
mistake of using thin tape just around the edges. It wore
off pretty quickly and I was a very sad cheetah.

If you can't write legibly, you have a choice. Either find
someone else willing to invest several hours in writing your
cards, or find some nifty way to type them up on the
computer.

3. Care and Maintenance

The deck will tip over if you have enough cards, because
they have tape covering the pictures. Put them in the large
box lid to corral them.

Not long after you've made the deck, some idiot will attempt
to anger you by spilling soda on the cards, eating them,
etc. Because the materials make recreating the cards easy
and you stored all of the pictures on your computer, it will
be no problem to replace any cards lost to tragedy.

I've since switched to a fully electronic deck. I'm not
going to go into how to make an electronic card as it
involves whichever program you happen to use. I like Vassal,
as it is free.

The current link to my deck is available here - look for HC module;
whichever one is the highest number, as we continue to
revise it.

Remember - the card deck will reflect you, your game, your
players, and your world. A well crafted card deck will be
one of the things players look forward to using.

Good gaming!

* * *

Looking for RPG players! Want to see in person how my deck
is used? Join my game.

Heroic Cthulhu is a table top role playing game based on a
humorous mix of forensic investigation, urban horror and
more. All actual play sessions are recorded and published
as a podcast. We have players from all over the world but
we're always looking for more. Listen to some episodes and
visit our forums to find out how to get involved.

For Your Game: Magic Item Backstories

1. The Storied Scroll

From: Dfaran L'Eniarc

The item: A spell scroll with some notable mid- or high-
level spell on it.

The hook: This scroll was scribed by none other than
Mordenkainen himself, or Elminster, or Gandalf, or whatever
big-name wizardly type you prefer. Whatever its magical
merits are, the knowledge that could be gleaned from
studying his particular style is probably far more valuable.

Certain collectors and magical scholars might pay huge sums
of money for this valuable artifact. The spell itself is
written with beautiful elegance, and perhaps Mordenkainen
even left some notes in the margins, as an afterthought,
suggesting ways to alter the spell and make it more
powerful.

The question becomes whether it is more valuable to the PCs
to cast the spell, copy it into a spellbook, or preserve
this piece of wizarding history - and sell it for boatloads
of money.

Alternatively, the spell in question is a simple cantrip,
next to useless aside from the historical, scholarly value.
Still worth boatloads of money to the right buyer, but could
easily be erased by any competent magic-user in seconds -not
to mention that it's just a flimsy piece of paper.

Another hook: The scroll was cleverly scribed so the magical
runes form a treasure map. No attempt to copy the map can be
made without erasing the magical writing. The spell itself
is one that would easily overcome many obstacles on the path
to the treasure, except that once it is cast, the map will
be gone. The PCs must decide if it is worth more to them to
have their cake, or to eat it.

2. Blessed Orb of Healing

From: Jason "Flynn" Kemp

There is a legend among the Walkers of Joven, a society of
wandering pacifistic monk-healers, of a holy magic item
known as the Blessed Orb of Healing. In the early days of
the kingdom, the Walkers would travel with the greatest of
the First King's armies, and use the Orb to heal the
wounded of both sides once the battle had ended.

Many a land coveted such a powerful item, but it was the
First King himself whose greed overcame him. Desperate to
bring the power of such an artifact fully under his
control, the First King sent a small band of his personal
guard into the encampment of the Walkers of Joven at the
height of a great battle, disguised as mercenaries under
the enemy's banner.

As the Fates would have it, however, at the moment where the
Walkers were defending themselves from the First King's
secret forces, the enemy broke through the front line and
poured into the First King's camps. In the confusion, the
Orb was lost, and to this day, none have laid claim to
possessing it, nor has its whereabouts been revealed to the
public at large.

Now, a young scholar has discovered letters in the ruins of
an ancient library that imply the existence of a secret
order within the Walkers of Joven whose duty it was to
protect the artifacts and relics of their healing god.
Members of this secret order, the Order of the Inner Circle,
were not bound by the oaths of pacifism that the other
Walkers of Joven followed, and tended to follow the path of
the monk more than that of the healer.

The young scholar suspects that perhaps a member of the
Inner Circle managed to escape that fateful day with the
Blessed Orb of Healing, and now the relic resides in the
hidden vaults of the Inner Circle. Among the writings he's
found are clues to the location of this ancient trove, and
he needs a brave band of adventurers to help him seek out
this holy relic and the other treasures that undoubtedly
exist with it in these vaults, all in the name of King and
Kingdom.

3. Unguent of Timelessness

From: Brad Chacos

The town's Captain of the Night Watch, a round, pleasant
and well-liked older cleric with many years of service,
approaches the group soon after they perform some act of
unselfish good.

He has a confession: he is secretly a vampire who forswore
his evil natures and devoted his life to Pelor and the
proverbial greater good. He keeps the kind-hearted, yet
judgmental and superstitious townsfolk of his small
religious community ignorant of his secret by thoroughly
covering his body in the Unguent of Timelessness every nine
months like clockwork. This keeps his looks unremarkable
enough, if a bit prone to some funky body odors.

But, the orcs that haunt the mountains between here and
the coastal city that supplies the Unguent have been
causing a lot of trouble recently. His normal merchant
hasn't been seen nor heard from - and the Captain last
applied the Unguent almost 11 months ago.

Would the party be willing to make the trek to the coastal
city and return with a full barrel of the Unguent? If they
hear anything about Argyle, the merchant, the
Captain would love to hear of that as well.

1. Comments on Police in a Modern Campaign

You could also have a "corrupt police" or "police as enemy"
in the campaign. Not realistic in many circumstances, but
there are many examples in fiction.

Several systems also have "Mundanes can't even see the stuff
PCs deal with" which can make the uninvolved police a bit
easier to swallow.

Another popular option is the "Fringe police". Law
enforcement on the edges of civilisation, in near wilderness
areas, with low populations. Australia has some
jurisdictions the size of Belgium patrolled by a total of
just two officers. Response times can be many hours. Backup
can be days away. Crimes could be realistically committed in
these areas with very little chance of any police
involvement at all.

A related option would be "Overwhelmed police". Areas where
the police are trying, but the criminals are winning. You
could get away with arson because the police are too busy
dealing with the murders.

Police Process

The original Call of Chuthulu book had 3 or 4 paragraphs
detailing how a officer would approach and if necessary
arrest a suspect. It was short, detailed and quite accurate.
It was presented from the point of view of PCs being
arrested and I found it very useful.

2. Additional Modern Police Tips

Great contribution on police in RPGs from Logan. Here are
some observations.

If you're going to change the level of police
involvement, it should be as a consequence of PC actions in
full awareness of what they are doing. Actions such as
leaving The Agency, or resigning from the force, or crossing
certain lines of accepted behavior.

From a story perspective, minimal police involvement is
a genre convention. But if you're looking for a realistic
explanation, there are three kinds.

First is police corruption. Especially well suited to 1920s
Chicago or any place and time where cops are liable to take
money to look the other way. Selecting this choice means you
can have wide latitude shooting at other gangs and blowing
up their criminal operations. Interfering with the police or
harming law officers is a game changer, and as mentioned in
point 1, will be a PC action that ends minimal involvement.

Second is inter-jurisdictional boundaries. This makes the
most sense and has the broadest application when the PCs
are spies and someone from Washington is showing up in some
police chief's office telling him this is a federal matter
and to leave it alone.

This doesn't mean sometimes the police don't pick up the PCs
or catch them doing something, but it does mean they get
released without much difficulty when said agent from
Washington arrives. While this is best for international spy
or anti-terrorist stuff, it can also work for some domestic
departmental rivalries, but its impact will be less regular.

The ATF, and to some extent DEA, have something of a
reputation as cowboys with other agencies and local police.
This can be played realistically, or can be a thin veil to
maintain in-game suspension of disbelief.

Third is because the PCs don't do things that interest the
police. A campaign designed for role-playing-story-telling-
problem-solvers as opposed to tactical-power-gaming-slayers
might involve PCs who could, for all intents and purposes,
be little old ladies that solve crimes by asking questions
of the right people.

Two genres that follow this style, even if they aren't
popular gaming tropes, are the private detective and the
crime-solving civilian. These can start off as "my husband
has disappeared but the police think he ran off with another
woman" type problems that then turn out to be bigger.

Alternatively, they can be cold cases the police have
stopped spending regular man-hours on. These can be
interesting campaigns because they involve little or no
combat and require players to prove their case so completely
that the police act, or drive the bad guys out into the open
with their bad behavior.

I have run several games where the possibility of the
campaign turning into a run-from-the-authorities was real. I
told the players the story of Bonnie and Clyde, although
John Dillinger, Jesse James, and other criminals work as
well. The idea is that Bonnie and Clyde were small time
crooks who were put into a situation where they might have
been arrested, and chose to shoot their way out.

Having killed some state police they were no longer small
time crooks but wanted criminals. Clyde Barrow then upped
the stakes again by robbing an armory to get BAR's and then
by breaking a man out of a Texas prison work detail. By this
time the police were willing to just ambush and shoot Bonnie
and Clyde.

So when I am running a realistic police setting, there are
three basic response levels.

The PCs are criminals who do things like rob gas stations
and liquor stores and get normal police response to such
actions.

The PCs are wanted men, and when located, the police set
up perimeters, call in lots of back-up, and attempt to
contain the PCs before eventual apprehension.

The PCs are considered so bad and so dangerous the
police will kill you and the consequences for the police
don't matter because the game is over, you're dead. You're
Dillinger at the Biograph.

Games normally involve concepts of proportional risk. A
character of so many character levels, build points, or what
have you, gets to fight NPCs designed to be a challenge.

Once you get to "C" in my scheme, proportionality is out the
window. The man assigned to organize the posse to bring you
down will hire and recruit whoever he needs. Special Forces,
top Mafia hit men, whatever.

Only one game I was ever involved in played out this way,
and the players were actually playing for a crazy nihilistic
romp. Instead of playing their criminals as lovable rogues
as expected, they stole from the mob, stole government
vehicles, and just kept running until, like any spree-
killers, they ran up against more firepower than they could
possibly deal with, and went out in a "blaze of glory".

Whether the law is the king's sheriffs, the local police
department, or Imperial Stormtroopers, playing a realistic
police response is fun style for players who prefer to talk
their way out of problems rather than shoot their way out.
If these are your players, this kind of legal authority is
something to consider in your game.

3. Create Alternate Characters For SWAT

From: Nara Van Rossum

As I read Logan Horsford's great article, I realized the way
I would deal with the problem of action, when PCs are police
and the inevitable "Calling in the SWAT" moments, would be
to give each player an extra character for the encounter.

If you have five players, each player gets a character in
the main PC group, plus one character for every commonly
called-in outside group. That way, players can capture
hostile subjects, interrogate them, investigate the scene
extensively, and never miss out on the interesting bits.

Whether these moments happen frequently or infrequently is
up to the GM, but removing the NPC nature of backup could
encourage players to keep it realistic and "call it in" more
often.

4. Identifying Your Dice

From: Loz Newman

This dates from the long-ago days of yore when the only
games shop in our town sold only one brand of dice...all the
same color. To avoid confusing our dice with others, my
friends and I came up with a simple solution: color the
engraved number (from 1 to 4) on one face of each die a
given color (use a thin-point permanent marker), each of us
having a unique number+color combination.

I picked (and still use to this day) "Three/green" (I color
the number 3 on each dice a bright green). My friends chose
"Four/blue", "One/purple", "Three/red" etc. To sort out
which dice are whose, just check the color coding.

Nowadays, with all the makes of dice rolling around,
confusion is not such a problem. However, if you buy those
big packs of identical d6 (or similar) this trick can be
used to divvy them up between those who chipped in for the
purchase.

This tip only works on dice with numbers stamped or engraved
into the surface of the faces.

Notes:

Why only 1 to 4? Because the smallest type of polyhedral
dice (d4) only has 4 sides.

If your dice has black letters, lay down a little white
liquid paper first...if it gets onto the surface of the die,
just wipe it off before it dries.

If they'd been available (and cheaper!) at the time I'd
have probably chosen to use one of those artist pens with
gold or silver ink.